Sigh. Always test cast iron of unknown history. Any wall mounting tips lol?
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
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Cast Iron
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Chemistry instructor here. It depends on how hot you get the pan. For the most part, the lead is going to stay in the seasoning, like someone mentioned above. However, if it got anywhere close to the melting point of the iron, you could wind up incorporating some of the lead into the iron itself. This seems pretty unlikely, as lead melts at about 325^o^C and iron melts above 1,500^o^C, but it's possible as natural gas and propane burners can get up to above 1,900^o^C
Lol I'd would love to see home attempts to even try to get it to that temperature. But I would also like to be far far away. Because at those temps if the sounding area isn't sufficiently prepared for metal casting. Anything is a bomb. Even the dirt and concrete.
In my experience, people get really creative when it comes to kitchen/garage chemistry, so all I'm saying is I wouldn't rule out anything that is physically possible.
Especially if we're talking about one's personal health.
Edit: since it's relevant, I literally just taught a lab section that has a research project component, and one group did their project on metallurgy. They were able to use butane Bunsen burner attachments and cinder blocks to make a furnace that was able to melt iron and make some mediocre steel alloys using only stuff you can buy at Home Depot.
I'd hope they weren't cooking it until it was glowing bright white hot.
Me too, but since we don't know exactly why they were melting lead or what other metals might have been mixed it, it's impossible to say for sure.